Once bitten, no meat baby:
Tick bite causes allergic
reaction to meat

A tiny tick, known as the "lone star tick" for the white spot on its
back, just might be responsible for spreading meat allergies on the East
Coast, forcing meat lovers to reluctantly give up their carnivorous ways and
convert to vegetarianism. The University of Virginia researchers say that
saliva that enters the bite wound may be the cause of the allergic reaction
to meat.

"People will eat beef and then anywhere from three to six hours later
start having a reaction; anything from hives to full-blown anaphylactic
shock," said Dr. Scott Commins, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the
University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Naturally, people want to avoid
any food that triggers such a reaction.

Cases of this strange allergy, at least 400 already reported, are
starting to appear along the East Coast, as well as Southeastern and South
Central United States, areas heavily populated with the lone star ticks. Dr.
Collins has said that while the link between the lone star tick bite and
meat allergies is hard to prove, they're still "searching for the
mechanism."

Dr. Commins has linked the bite of a lone star tick to a rise in the
blood levels of antibodies for alpha-gal, a sugar found in red meat, pork
and lamb. Dr. Commins said, "It's complicated, no doubt. But we think it's
something in the saliva."

Experts say that further complicating matters is the three to six hour
delay between the ingestion of meat and the allergic reactions. Dr. Stanley
Fineman, President of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology
said, "It's very atypical as food allergies go. Most food allergies occur
very quickly. And it's also a bit unusual to see adults develop a food
allergy. But the tick bite theory could help explain the sudden onset of
some meat allergies."

While most food allergy sufferers are happy to rid themselves of their
source of suffering, the foreign concept of giving up meat may be hard to
swallow for some, so to speak.

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